After a Deferral, a Promise Kept

Today's post starts with a request made back in 2018. It was late November, possibly even the day after Thanksgiving, and part of my side of the family had gone to see a matinee stage production of Fiddler on the Roof, and we were all meeting up for dinner at a restaurant afterwards. At some point during that meal, my brother mentioned that he really wanted a grandpa-style sweater and asked if I would knit him one. I pulled out my phone and pulled up the Ravelry advanced pattern search to enter all the criteria: cables, buttoned front, shawl collar. When I shared the results of the search with him, I was delighted that he picked a pattern that I already had in my library. So then we moved on to yarn, and I figured a budget-friendly, washable yarn was the best bet, so I showed him the range of colors in Knit Picks Swish and he made his selections. I ordered the yarn that night or the next morning, and it came soon after. And then it sat in my stash -- for years.

Finally, this spring, I decided he had been waiting long enough. His 35th birthday was coming up, and combined with my ongoing effort to use up my stash, it seemed like the perfect time to finally deliver on my promise to make him the perfect grandpa sweater. There were some hiccups along the way, but this past Friday night, I presented it to him. Judging from his reaction, I'd say it's a success.

Pattern: Edinburgh by Kate Bostwick
Yarn: Knit Picks Swish Worsted in Dove Heather (used just a little less than 14 skeins) and Swish DK in Wonderland Heather (used a bit more than one skein)
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm), US 5 (3.75 mm), and US 6 (4.0 mm)
Started/Completed: May 4/July 24
Mods: Omitted the edging in the contrast color

This was a really clever pattern and, with one little possible mistake (some ribbing directions appeared to be reversed), very well written. My only real modification, other than adding about four inches in length to the sleeves to accommodate my brother's monkey arms, was to omit the edgings in the contrast color. The pattern calls for casting on for the sweater pieces (or binding off, in the case of the collar and button bands) with the contrast color that is used in the pocket linings, but I just couldn't deal with more ends to weave in, and my brother didn't really seem to care.

As to those pocket linings, I think they might be my favorite feature.

I've done an afterthought pocket before, but this construction was new to me. The designer has you create a vertical slit by working two sections of each front separately and then rejoining them several inches later. When the front piece is complete, you use a lighter-weight yarn and a smaller needle to pick up stitches all the way around the slit opening and knit the pocket, which is then pushed inside. And this is no for-show-only pocket, either -- it was big enough to comfortably fit my iPhone, which means it will also be large enough for my brother's hands.

I know several of you told me you were impressed by my ability to keep the cable pattern straight, but I have to say that as cable patterns go, this one was actually pretty easy. For one thing, all the cables cross in the same direction, so I never had to think about whether they were crossing to the left or the right. They're all simple 2x2 crosses, too, so I didn't need to use a cable needle. And all five pieces of the sweater use the same chart, so it became very intuitive to me after a while. Toward the end, I still had the chart close by, but I could pretty much tell when it was time to cross a cable.

My brother especially liked that the sweater had a "slimming" effect on his appearance (his words!). And I neglected to take a closeup of the buttons, but you can see what they look like in the Etsy listing. I ordered a dozen so that I'll have some extras on hand just in case. Based upon the weather report for the week ahead, my brother is not going to be wearing his sweater anytime soon, but he is excited to have it for the WQED Cardigan Party, which we're hoping will happen again this year!

As to me? I'm really excited to finally be done with this behemoth. I have a few skeins of yarn left for some baby gifts or charity hats, and I've already swatched for my next sweater -- which will be a much smaller and much simpler summer tank for me!